Web Services Access to Content Items Stored by Collaboration Systems

1. A method comprising: receiving, by a computing system, a web services request to invoke a method of a web Application Programming Interface (API), wherein the web services request is a request to invoke an enumerate databases method of the web API, the enumerate databases request containing an identifier of a last seen database; in response to receiving the web services request, invoking, by the computing system, a method of a language-dependent API of a client component in a collaboration system, the client component communicating with a collaboration server component in the collaboration system using a proprietary communications protocol, the method of the language-dependent API being a method to obtain data from the collaboration server component; and after invoking the method of the language-dependent API, sending, by the computing system, a web services response whose contents depend on the data obtained from the collaboration server component, wherein the web services response is an enumerate databases response responsive to the enumerate databases request and the enumerate databases response containing identifiers of databases having values greater than the identifier of the last seen database.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the web services request is received from a component implemented as a 64-bit application; and wherein the language-dependent API is implemented as a 32-bit application.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the enumerate databases request specifies a given one of the collaboration server components in the collaboration system; and the enumerate databases response specifies identifiers of databases in the given one of the collaboration server components.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising: receiving, by the computing system, an enumerate items request, the enumerate items request being a web services request to invoke an enumerate items method of the web API, the enumerate items request specifying a given database in the given one of the collaboration server components; and sending an enumerate items response, the enumerate items response being a web services response that is responsive to the enumerate items request, the enumerate items request specifying identifiers of content items in the given database.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising: receiving, by the computing system, a fetch item request, the fetch item request being a web services request to invoke a fetch item method of the web API, the fetch item request specifying the identifier of a given content item in the given database; and sending a fetch item response, the fetch item response being a web services response that is responsive to the fetch item request, the fetch item request containing an array of unique identifiers for documents attached to the given content item, a display URL of the given content item, content of the given content item, an array of properties of the given content item, a last modified time of the given content item, and a security descriptor of the given content item.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising: receiving, by the computing system, a fetch attachment request, the fetch attachment request being a web services request to invoke a fetch attachment method of the web API, the fetch attachment request containing a unique identifier of a given document attached to the given content item; and sending a fetch attachment response, the fetch attachment response being a web services response that is responsive to the fetch attachment request, the fetch attachment response containing contents of the given document.

7. The method of claim 4 , wherein the enumerate items request contains an identifier of a last seen content item; and wherein the enumerate items response exclusively contains identifiers of content items having values greater than the identifier of the last seen content item.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method of the web API is a method to obtain identifiers of collaboration server components in the collaboration system.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving, by the computing system, an enumerate servers request to the web API, the enumerate servers request being a web services request to invoke an enumerate servers method of the web API; and sending, by the computing system, an enumerate servers response from the web API, the enumerate servers response being a web services response that is responsive to the enumerate servers request, the enumerate servers response containing identifiers of collaboration server components in the collaboration system.

10. A method comprising: sending, by a component provided by a computing device, a web services request to invoke a method of a web Application Programming Interface (API) that uses a collaboration client component of a collaboration system to obtain data from a collaboration server component in the collaboration system, wherein the collaboration server component and the client component exclusively communicate with each other using a proprietary communications protocol; receiving, by the component, a web services response from the web API as a response to the web services request, the web services response containing content based on the data obtained from the collaboration server component; sending, by the component, an enumerate databases request to the web API, the enumerate databases request being a web services request to invoke an enumerate databases method of the web API; and receiving, by the component, an enumerate databases response from the web API, the enumerate databases response being a web services response that is responsive to the enumerate databases request, wherein the enumerate databases request contains an identifier of a last seen database, and wherein the enumerate databases response contains identifiers of databases having values greater than the identifier of the last seen database.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the component is a 64-bit application; and wherein the client component is a 32-bit application.

12. The method of claim 10 , further comprising: sending, by the component, an enumerate items request to the web API, the enumerate items request being a web services request to invoke an enumerate items method of the web API; receiving, by the component, an enumerate items response from the web API, the enumerate items response containing identifiers of content items in a given database in the collaboration server component; and after receiving the enumerate items response, modifying, by the component, an index such that the index contains entries that map terms that are applicable to the content items having identifiers contained in the enumerate items response to the content items having identifiers contained in the enumerate items response.

13. The method of claim 12 , wherein the enumerate items request contains an identifier of a last seen content item; and wherein the enumerate items response exclusively contains identifiers of content items having values greater than the identifier of the last seen content item.

14. The method of claim 12 , wherein the enumerate items response contains, for each content item having an identifier in the enumerate items response, an array of identifiers for documents attached to the content item, a display URL of the content item, content of the content item, an identifier of the content item, a list of properties of the content item, a last modified time of the content item, and a security descriptor of the content item.

15. The method of claim 12 , wherein the method further comprises: after modifying the index, receiving, by the component, a query; in response to receiving the query, using, by the component, the index to identify ones of the content items that satisfy conditions specified by the query; and sending, by the component, a query response that specifies the content items that satisfy the conditions specified by the query.

16. The method of claim 12 , further comprising: sending, by the component, a fetch attachment request to the web API, the fetch attachment request being a web services request to invoke a fetch attachment method of the web API, the fetch attachment request specifying an identifier of a given content item in the given database of content items, the fetch attachment request also specifying an identifier of a document attached to the given content item; and receiving, by the component, a fetch attachment response from the web API, the fetch attachment response being a web services response that is responsive to the fetch attachment request, the fetch attachment response containing the document attached to the given content item.

17. The method of claim 12 , further comprising: sending, by the component, an enumerate servers request to the web API, the enumerate servers request being a web services request to invoke an enumerate servers method of the web API; and receiving, by the component, an enumerate servers response from the web API, the enumerate servers response being a web services response that is responsive to the enumerate servers request, the enumerate servers response containing identifiers of collaboration server components in the collaboration system.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the enumerate servers response contains a display URL and a unique identifier for collaboration server components in the collaboration system.

19. The method of claim 10 , wherein the enumerate databases response contains an identifier and a last modified time for databases in the collaboration server component.

20. A computing system comprising: a processing system; and a computer-readable data storage system that stores software instructions that, when executed by the processing system, cause the computing system to: send an enumerate servers request to a web API that obtains data from collaboration server components in a collaboration system, the enumerate servers request being a web services request to invoke an enumerate servers method of the web API, wherein the collaboration server components in the collaboration system and client components in the collaboration system exclusively communicate with each other using a proprietary communications protocol; receive an enumerate servers response from the web API, the enumerate servers response being a web services response that is responsive to the enumerate servers request, the enumerate servers response containing display URLs and unique identifiers for collaboration server components in the collaboration system; for each given collaboration server component having a unique identifier contained in the enumerate servers response: send an enumerate databases request to the web API, the enumerate databases request being a web services request to invoke an enumerate databases method of the web API, the enumerate databases request specifying the unique identifier of the given collaboration server component; receive an enumerate databases response from the web API, the enumerate databases response being a web services response that is responsive to the enumerate databases request, the enumerate databases response containing a unique identifier and a last modified time for each database in the given collaboration server component; for each given database in the given collaboration server component: send an enumerate items request to the web API, the enumerate items request being a web services request to invoke an enumerate items method of the web API, the enumerate items request specifying the unique identifier of the given database; receive an enumerate items response from the web API, the enumerate items response being a web services response that is responsive to the enumerate items request, the enumerate items response containing unique identifiers for content items in the given database; for each given content item having a unique identifier contained in the enumerate items response: send a fetch item request to the web API, the fetch item request being a web services request to invoke a fetch item method of the web API, the fetch item request specifying the unique identifier of the given content item; receive a fetch item response from the web API, the fetch item response being a web services response that is responsive to the fetch item request, the fetch item request containing an array of unique identifiers for documents attached to the given content item, a display URL of the given content item, content of the given content item, an array of properties of the given content item, a last modified time of the given content item, and a security descriptor of the given content item; after receiving the fetch item response, modify an index such that entries in the index map terms applicable to the given content item to the given content item; and for each given document identified in the array of unique identifiers for documents attached to the given content item: send a fetch attachment request to the web API, the fetch attachment request being a web services request to invoke a fetch attachment method of the web API, the enumerate databases response containing a unique identifier of the given document; receive a fetch attachment response from the web API, the fetch attachment response being a web services response that is responsive to the fetch attachment request, the fetch attachment response containing contents of the given document; and modify the index such that the index contains entries that map terms applicable to the given document to the given content item.